Estrogens affect many organ systems, and consequently can play a role in a number of conditions or disease states. Estrogen receptors are ligand-activated transcription factors and belong to the nuclear hormone receptor superfamily which includes progesterone, androgen, glucocorticoid and mineralocorticoid receptors. Upon binding ligand, these receptors dimerize and can activate gene transcription either by directly binding to specific DNA sequences or interacting with other transcription factors. A class of proteins can also interact with the receptors and modulate their transcription activity.
The most potent endogenous estrogen is 17β-estradiol, and the activity of this estrogen can be mimicked or blocked by many compounds. Some compounds can have mixed activity, acting as an agonist in one tissue and an antagonist elsewhere; these are called selective estrogen receptor modulators, and are potentially useful therapeutic agents. The discovery of such therapeutically useful compounds and efficient methods for making them is an important goal in the pharmaceutical industry.
According to David C. Pryde, et al., Synthesis of 2-Tetralones Via A Novel 1,2-Carbonyl Transposition of 1-Tetralones, Tetrahedron Lett. (1996), 37(19), 3243-3246, α-tetralones A may be converted to nitrites B by reaction with trimethyl-SiCN in the presence of a Znl2 catalyst followed by the addition of POCl3 and pyridine:

The following multi-step conversion of 7-methoxy-1-tetralone to 7-methoxy-1-naphthonitrile has been described by T. Hayashi, et al., Preparation And Binding Affinity of New Porphyrin Host Molecule for Ubiguinone Analogs, Chem. Lett. (1994), (9), 1749-52:

The coupling reaction of diverse aryl halides with phenylboronic acid under solvent-free conditions has been reported using Pd(PPh3)4 catalyst under ball-milling conditions. Inert NaCl was added to the reaction mixtures to make them sufficiently powdery. The order of reactivity was complementary to the normal Suzuki reaction. S. F. Nielsen, et al., The Suzuki Reaction Under Solvent-Free Conditions, Den. Synthetic Communications (2000), 30(19), 3501-3509.